Aerial view over an Ajax community.

Bill 23

Impacts of the More Homes Built Faster Act, 2022 (Bill 23)

In November 2022, the Province of Ontario passed the More Homes Built Faster Act, 2022 (Bill 23). The Bill introduced sweeping impacts to development charges (DCs), Regional planning activities, and other items relevant to both Regional and local municipalities in Durham Region.

While local government does not build housing, they do help plan for it. The Region makes sure that services and infrastructure (such as drinking water and sewer pipes) are planned, paid for and in place to support new housing.

Bill 23 removes Regional Council’s role in approving land-use planning decisions and reduces DC funding to municipalities for infrastructure. The changes introduced in Bill 23 could make this process longer, more expensive and limit our ability to support truly affordable housing.

Existing property taxpayers and ratepayers of Durham Region—as with most other municipalities in Ontario—will be asked to fund future infrastructure to support new homes in our community.

Higher property taxes—at both the local and Regional levels—are now likely. Finding ways to fund larger projects could also mean reducing the level of services that our communities have come to expect.

Durham Regional Council, local area municipalities and Indigenous communities were not consulted on these changes. Supporting about 84,000 new homes in Durham over the next 10 years requires partnerships and collaboration.

The Region is asking the province to engage with municipalities, in a meaningful way, to help increase the supply of different types of housing for all residents and income levels.

Learn more about additional impacts in the various sections below. This page will continue to be updated, as new information becomes available.

Development charges (DCs) and impact to taxpayers

What are development charges?

Development charges (DCs) are the main tool that municipalities use to pay for building the new infrastructure required, as its population grows. These capital costs are things like water and sewer pipes, water and wastewater plant expansions, roads, transit and more.

DCs cannot be used to pay for operating expenses. They are for growth-related items in residential (homes) and non-residential (commercial or industrial) development.

In Ontario, the long-standing belief has been that growth pays for growth. When someone bought a new house, DCs would be built into the purchase price. The Region and local municipality would collect these funds to pay for the costs of infrastructure in that community (such as water and sewer pipes). DCs only apply to new builds. Resale homes do not fund DCs.

The impact of Bill 23 is estimated to reduce the DCs collected by about $281 million over five years. With reduced DC revenue to fund infrastructure, the financial burden will shift to existing property taxpayers and water and sewer ratepayers.

DC rates in Durham Region are lower than the provincial average. In Durham, the average total cost of DCs—including Regional, local and educational fees—is $73,888 per single-detached unit, well below the $116,900 average noted by the province.

Bill 23 does not eliminate DCs entirely. There will still be some DCs collected from new units. But, with various new discounts, exemptions and phase-in requirements, new housing will not pay for the infrastructure required to support that community. Growth will not pay for growth. The money needed to support growth will need to be paid by increasing property taxes.

For transparency, the Region is working to include information regarding all property tax and water and sewer rate increases resulting from Bill 23 in the upcoming 2023 Regional property tax bills and future cycles.

What are Regional reserve funds?

Municipalities in Ontario, including Durham Region, keep funds in reserve to help pay for expensive infrastructure. We have a long-range capital plan that considers everything that we need to build and save for, over many years. Think of reserve funds as a savings account.

The Region has managed our reserve funds well. We undergo a financial audit every single year and are one of a handful of Canadian municipalities with a Triple A credit rating.

There are two types of reserves: general reserves and reserve funds.

General reserves set money aside for future needs. Through the annual budget cycle, the funds can be used to pay for unexpected costs (such as COVID-19). It is Regional Council that decides how to spend this money.

Reserve funds are different. They are intended to help save for major projects with savings from things like DCs, provincial or federal funding, etc. There are strict rules around how municipalities collect DCs and where the money can be spent. It is not a pool of money that municipalities can use for whatever purpose they choose. Reserve funds are intended to help save for major projects—like new police and paramedic stations—rather than needing a large tax or user rate fee increase in one year.

Finding funds through property taxes and water and sewer rates

Durham Region has estimated that the impact of Bill 23 will reduce DCs by about $281 million over five years. This means there will be less funding available for major capital projects.

Durham Region provides infrastructure and offers many services—most of which are funded by property taxes. There are limited other revenue options, such as provincial funding and water and sewer rates.

All properties in Durham Region pay property taxes. They are collected by the city or town that the person lives in. Property taxes are determined by a formula. It includes the assessed value of the home, and the tax rate in the city or town. A certain amount of each homeowners’ property taxes is directed to the Region to help fund the delivery of various Regional programs and services.

Water and sewer rates are pay-per-use fees for people connected to the municipal supply system. This means that people who have a well or septic system, on their property, do not pay water or sewer rates. They are not funded by property taxes. Instead, Durham Regional Council approves the water and sewer rates each year.

What services could be impacted?

The Region of Durham agrees that we need more housing. However, Bill 23 means that existing property taxpayers could either face significant tax increases, or decreased services, because of reduced DC funding for growing cities and towns.

Infrastructure is crucial to help growing communities be connected and resilient. Possible situations include:

Less affordable housing is built. Bill 23 eliminates DC revenue that was supporting the Region to reach its At Home in Durham goal of 1,000 new affordable housing units by 2024.
Overcrowded and aging buses. A 20 per cent reduction in the Region’s transit DCs happened the day Bill 23 took effect and could impact investment in transit service in the region.
Traffic congestion from not maintaining or expanding roads, outdated police and paramedic stations as projects are delayed, to instead pay for things like water and sewer pipes to a new subdivision.
Less parks, recreational facilities and libraries. At the local municipal level, cities and towns collect DCs and parkland dedication fees to support municipal recreation facilities and green spaces.
Increased tax and water utility bills to cover the reduced DC funding.

Durham Region supports affordable housing

Durham Region supports the provincial goal of building more homes. Housing is a priority for Durham Regional Council because it forms the building blocks of our communities.
Durham needs more affordable housing—housing which is available for rent at about 80 per cent of the market rate—for those who qualify. Bill 23 will impact the ability for the Region to support affordable housing.
In 2021, the Region funded a 24-unit affordable housing project in Oshawa using DCs that had been collected since 2018. The housing services component was also used in 2022 to support a 52-unit affordable housing project in Clarington.
Affordable housing is crucial to ensuring all residents have a place to call home.
In addition to limiting the DCs that can be used to support affordable housing projects, there is nothing in Bill 23 to ensure the savings from developers will be reflected in the purchase of a new home, or that housing will become more attainable.

Importance of Regional planning

Regional governments are important to supporting new housing construction and shaping our communities.

Regional planning aims to ensure that future growth is balanced with required services (transit service, water, sewer and roads).

Durham Regional Council uses the Durham Regional Official Plan to ensure infrastructure is planned and delivered in a co-ordinated and responsible manner. It is about creating resilient communities. It is about protecting the environment. It is about preserving our agricultural land base; a vital piece of our local and provincial economies.

Bill 23 removes the Region’s approval role in land-use planning. The Region of Durham and six other upper-tier municipalities will be “upper-tier municipalities without planning responsibilities.” But a date has not been given for when that might happen.

The role of Regional planning extends beyond approving development plans. Regional planning teams develop the Regional Official Plan. This guides and co-ordinates development on a regional scale. It includes things like:

Planning and services for employment areas to support job creation.
Planning for transit-oriented communities—higher-density communities, centred around public transit, takes regional co-ordination. Vibrant, sustainable transit-oriented communities are key in attracting talent and supporting prosperity.
Planning-related impacts to the Greenbelt and Conservation Authorities.

Impacts to the Greenbelt

At the same time as Bill 23, the province introduced legislation to remove lands from the Greenbelt to support more housing development.

In the Greater Golden Horseshoe, the province identified 7,400 acres of land to be removed. More than 4,500 acres are within Durham Region (in Pickering, Ajax and Clarington).

A condition of removal is that homes must be under construction by 2025. This means development is on an accelerated timeline.

However, Durham Region does not require more land to meet its housing targets. There is an eight to 10-year supply of housing already planned (in draft approved plans of subdivision, registered plans and via applications), which are not in the Greenbelt.

Development on the Greenbelt lands raises environmental concerns. It will take time to understand how to service these areas and what the cost will be. These new developments need to consider flood-related impacts, risks to existing plants and animals, and address other environmental concerns.

Durham Region is concerned with increasing development, within the Greenbelt, at a time when many municipalities, including Durham, have declared climate emergencies.

The Region will do its best to ensure that if development proceeds in these areas, it will not cost existing taxpayers.

Impacts to Conservation Authorities (CAs)

Under Bill 23, the role of Conservation Authorities as a support to municipalities has been limited. Now, their role will only be to comment on planning applications that relate to natural hazards and flooding. Some of the previous responsibilities of the CAs has been transferred to municipalities.

There are five CAs within Durham Region. For decades, the Region and local municipalities have relied on the expertise of CAs to help protect sensitive natural heritage features. They would be consulted through development approvals. They helped to mitigate natural hazards and flooding in new development areas. Bill 23 has changed this. CAs provide insight and advice to municipalities to support the review of new development applications.

CAs have also been asked to review their land ownership—purchased with significant contributions from local taxpayers—to identify what, if any, areas could be used for housing.

This initiative is a threat to the conservation areas that our residents have come to enjoy. It risks houses being built in locations that are not suitable for development.

Capacity in the York Durham Sewage System (YDSS)

The Region of Durham and the Region of York share responsibility for operation of the York Durham Sewage System (YDSS), including the Duffin Creek Water Pollution Control Plant (WPCP) in Pickering. The Supporting Growth and Housing in York and Durham Region Act requires York to send sewage and wastewater (such as water from doing laundry or washing dishes) from communities in upper York to Durham Region at the Duffin Creek WPCP.

This mandated additional servicing would exclusively support Aurora, East Gwillimbury and Newmarket in York Region. Treating upper York’s sewage and wastewater in Pickering means more homes can be built in York—without any community benefits to Durham Region residents.

Both Durham and York Regional Councils confirmed a preferred alternative treatment option related to Lake Simcoe, rather than an expansion into Lake Ontario. More information can be found in 2021-COW-28.

The Region is asking the province to ensure that any financial implications are revenue neutral for Durham Region residents.

Local perspectives

Town of Ajax

Township of Brock

Municipality of Clarington statement and council report

City of Oshawa statement and council report

City of Pickering

Township of Scugog

Township of Uxbridge

Town of Whitby Mayor’s Column, Video on Bill 23 and Bill 23 FAQs